Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #917 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-06
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Peter Parker, Daily Telegraph
`A truly remarkable book that is both intimate and universal.'

Sir Roy Strong
`The Très Riches Heures of garden writing.'

Anna Pavord
`Richly textured, like her garden, this is an intriguing, magical story of a place, a person and her plants.'

Customer Reviews

Evocative writing
I'm something of an armchair gardener - all the pleasure and none of the work - and this book satisfied my liking to read about beautiful gardens. Its chapters are titled according to the monastic hours, echoing the house's monastic past. The author created a dreamlike garden out of a field beside her Shropshire house. The book is a description of the genesis of that garden with digressions into history, herbalism, religion and the uses and growing habits of the plants she seeks to cultivate. The writing is brilliantly clear and the garden comes to life as you read. There are line drawings in the style of illustrations from a medieval book of hours, though no photographs, together with a plan of the layout of the garden This is a book to be enjoyed by anyone who has an interest in gardening, history or the spirit of human endeavour. To create such a magnificent garden is truly a labour of love